Neutrinos They Are Very Small, the physics show I'm in with Rebecca Diederichs and Gordon Hicks, is opening this month (Sept. 22) at the Art Gallery of Sudbury. The new Trouble With Oscillation website will be launching in about a week. I'm also doing a performance lecture in Sudbury (details here).

It has recently been sinking in for me (thanks to L.M., Heather Mallick and Judy Rebick) that the Canadian government has been holding people (5 people) in dentention, for years, without laying charges. Hassan Almrei has been in solitary confinement since 2001. The others are Mahmoud Jaballah, held since August 2001; Mohammad Mahjoub, held since June 2000; Mohamed Harkat, held since December 2002; and Adil Charkaoui, held since May 2003 and released on fourth bail application in February, 2005 (info from this page at HNB). Here's what Heather Mallick suggests we can do about it:

Canada's newfound cowardice exhausts me. What can I achieve beyond asking readers to go to Homes Not Bombs and write to three despicable politicians, Ontario's Monte Kwinter, minister of safety and jails, and the two MPs in charge of secret trials, Anne McLellan and Joe Volpe. Readers should call Mr. McGuinty's office and speak up for Tennyson Quance. As for the fact that any one of us might be under flight arrest thanks to the cowardice of the feds, all I can say is vote NDP everywhere every time.

There is an excellent letter about New Orleans in today's Globe and Mail by Judy Rebick, publisher of rabble.ca and long time activist. (An aside: unfortunately the Globe locks up their letters page online with a cute little red key icon meaning that you have to pay to read it. Fair enough, I guess, newspapers gotta make a buck just like everybody else, but you'd think maybe the letters to the editor could be free). Anyhow, Rebick points out that a key factor in the "societal breakdown" in New Orleans, is the steady dismantling of the social safety net that started under Regan in the 1980s, and had continued every since. Instead of spending tax dollars on welfare and unemployment insurance, we pay for police. This is Canada's problem too. As Rebick says, "Cuts to social services and infrastructure to fund tax reductions and security services lead to a breakdown in a sense of community and caring for each other. In good times that breakdown is suffered by the poor while the rest of us look away."

How does it get to be called "looting" when you are wading through a flood to an abandoned grocery store to get food and non-oil-soaked beverages to keep yourself and your family/friends/neighbours alive? Says Bush in his zero tolerance against so called crime in the disaster zone speech, "If they want food and water, we'll get them food and water." Uh, okay...when?

I can tell from recent comments that the low level of activity here is causing some unrest. It's still August and we should be dozing in the sun but in fact we are working on otherstuff (details pending). Okay, we are dozing in the sun. It's the all the giant bees around, they're soporific. In the meantime, you can read Overheard in New York (thanks to L.M.) and check out the wack atom bomb art at US Naval Historical Centre (thanks to Rob Cruickshank). In fact copious and continual thanks are owing to L.M. and Rob for the constant stream of good reading material, like The Bomb: A Life (L.M.) and the Donald Duck atom bomb comic strip (R.C.).